Thank you, Oksana, for your reply. For someone with a 10-day sunshine deficit, you don't seem inordinately grouchy , so don't worry on that score. In fact, I think you hit the nail on the head with your remarks about academic researchers demands vs. those of copyright holders. Very insightful.
I only used Lee Remick as an example, but I do see how her television work could be used as the basis of some interesting research. As a middle aged actress who was finding fewer and fewer opportunities on the big screen in the 80s (last cinematic roles mainly smallish ones in The Competition and Tribute). Meanwhile, she was landing starring roles in TV productions throughout the 70s and 80s. TV seemed to offer a way for "movie actresses" to age gracefully--and to continue to get relatively plum roles. (And of course, now we see Bette Midler moving into series television).
Of course, as Oksana points out, these trends could still be studied if a significant number of the actual films are documented (when not preserved) or if they remain available in select archives. Much depends on the nature of the research.
By the way, was the television ad (for DSL service, I think) where the clerk in a desert motel disinteredly tells an otherwise exasperated guest that for entertainment they offer "any movie, from any time, in any language" such a pipedream?
Greg Callahan